| Multiple studies have looked into health messages and their effectiveness. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of group identity within narrative health communication messages. Specifically, this research will identify what motivates and persuades people to give monetary donations to organizations based on narrative health messages. The specific theory that will be linked to health messages and their effectiveness is the normative social behavior theory (NSBT; Lapinski, Anderson, Shugart, & Todd, 2014). Normative social behavior theory explains specific behaviors based on the norms that influence those behaviors (Lapinski, Anderson, Shugart, & Todd, 2014). Norms influence the beliefs and attitudes that make people behave in the way that they do. The procedure of this study included 180 participants from a medium sized Midwestern university. Participants responded to an online survey utilizing a 2x2 design. The study utilized four messages (college sufferer/college donor, college sufferer/non college donor, non college sufferer/college donor, and non college sufferer/non college donor). The messages were distributed to participants randomly. Participants were asked questions after receiving the messages about intentions, attitudes, and behaviors of donation. Once those questions were answered, the participants then received the block messages, and answered questions about perceived message effectiveness. Based on the results, the hypotheses were not supported, but there were significant correlations between NSBT variables and beliefs, attitudes, and intentions. |
